Discover this Weekend League Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games
How do you improve a stellar experienced squad who have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the top tier of club and global soccer as you pursue additional trophies.
One Manchester team boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite appearances.
This star-studded team also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this season through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a